March 15, 2010

FT: The Job - Melodye Brant, FAO Schwarz

The job: Melodye Brant, FAO Schwarz

We do two performances each hour at FAO Schwarz , the New York toy store, and these involve dancing on a giant keyboard. One dancer plays the right hand and one plays the left.

We always do "Chopsticks" and "Heart and Soul", and then we do two more from our repertoire of 14 songs.

The idea of piano dancing comes from the film Big . FAO Schwarz started having professionals perform on the keyboard in 2004.

I used to work in a different department as a toy demonstrator when I heard they were looking for piano dancers. I've now been doing it for nearly five years.

My career is theatre by trade - I'm a singer, actor and dancer - so this is a day job. But it's great to get to perform and make some money. It's very flexible, too. If I need to take a couple of months off to travel with a show, then other dancers will take more shifts. You need rhythm and all the dancers are performers of some kind.

It's a real tourist attraction so you meet people from all over the world, and everyone - kids and adults - enjoys it. There aren't many downsides. You sometimes get crying children and when members of the public use the piano, smelly feet are an occasional hazard.

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